IU's College Arts and Humanities Institute announces fall awards

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University's College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) recently announced the awards of its Fall 2008 competition. The institute has two competitions each year, in the fall and spring semesters. The competitions are open to tenure-stream faculty in arts and humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Andrea Ciccarelli

CAHI is financed by IU's College of Arts and Sciences and sponsors three different kinds of research and/or artistic activities: conferences, workshops and performances; research travel grants; and fellowships (covering course releases or research grants). Additionally, CAHI sponsors a popular lecture series, "Meet the Author," now in its fifth year, and invites world renowned writers, artists and and intellectuals to the IU Bloomington campus.

CAHI Director Andrea Ciccarelli says that the institute's primary goal is to support the scholarly and creative initiatives of College of Arts and Sciences faculty.

"We want to foster both individual research activities and interdisciplinary cooperation among individuals, groups and programs in the arts and the humanities," Ciccarelli said.

The institute has a rigorous screening system with set deadlines for its internal competitions. Applications to each competition are evaluated and ranked by separate review boards, each consisting of at least three tenured or tenure-stream faculty who are appointed by the director, in consultation with the advisory board, which is composed by senior scholars in arts and humanities. Review board members serve a one-time renewable two-year term. In order to guarantee the transparency of the review system, reviewers are rotated among the different three competitions each semester.

Departments, programs and study groups can apply for emergency funding related to the institute's goals throughout the calendar year. Decisions about emergency funds are made by the director in consultation with the advisory board.